


An Upside Down Christmas

by 42hrb



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Christmas, Everyone is alive because reasons, Feelings, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Sterek Secret Santa, Wild Hunt, not much angst though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-26
Updated: 2016-12-26
Packaged: 2018-09-12 06:50:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9060694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/42hrb/pseuds/42hrb
Summary: When Stiles is taken by the Wild Hunt he runs into some people he didn't remember he had forgotten.





	

**Author's Note:**

> For @draechaeli as a part of the [Sterek Secret Santa](stereksecretsanta.tumblr.com) exchange 
> 
> Full disclosure I haven't watched season 5 or 6 so I'm basing a lot of this on tumblr posts about it.

Stiles wasn’t sure how he had gotten here, he also wasn’t really sure where ‘here’ was, but he had taken to calling it ‘The Upside Down’ because he binge watched Stranger Things a week before he was taken by The Hunt and because it felt like what The Upside Down probably felt like. It was a mirror image of Beacon Hills, filled with people he didn’t even know he had forgotten.

He had woken up and the first thing he realized was there were new memories, or more accurately, there were old memories that he had forgotten, flooding into his head. How had they forgotten about Kira? About Isaac? About Derek? Except there wasn’t a ‘they’ anymore, it was just him in this new world of forgotten things.

But Stiles wasn’t the kind of person to sit around wallowing in self pity, no sir. So he started looking for more familiar faces. “Stiles, I didn’t think I’d see you here,” Peter Hale said as Stiles walked passed him on Main Street, or what would have been Main Street if he were still in Beacon Hills.

“You couldn’t have stayed forgotten,” Stiles said, walking passed him without stopping, but he caught up with him, “What do you want Peter?”

“Just thought I’d say hello,” Peter said with a little wave of his hand and a twisted smile, “See if you’d run into anyone else from the old days.”

“I just got here.”

“Well when you find them, tell them I say hello.”

“Fuck off Peter.”

“You wound me.”

Stiles rolled his eyes and kept walked. He wasn’t sure where his feet were taking him until he looked up and realized that he was outside what used to be Derek’s loft. He took a deep breath and walked inside, his heart racing. “He won’t be here,” Stiles said out loud to no one but himself.

It was exactly the same as the loft had been, but backwards. It was a mirror image of the world Stiles had known, but it still felt like home. “Stiles?’

“Isaac?” Stiles said, voice rough, “How the hell did we forget about you?”

“I ask myself that question every day,” Isaac said, his voice sarcastic and Stiles couldn’t help but smile. “You smell like Peter.”

“He was the first person I saw,” Stiles said, walking further into the loft and flopping onto the couch, “Anyone else around?”

“Everyone’s around.”

“Derek?”

Isaac rolled his eyes, a look that Stiles knew well and hadn’t realized that he missed it until it happened again, “Of course Derek. He’ll be sad to see you here though.”

That stung, “Then he won’t have to see me here.”

“No, he will.”

“Who will what?” the familiar voice of Derek Hale said from the doorway. Stiles head whipped around just in time to see Derek standing in the door, his eyes wide and his face conveying nothing but shock. “You’re not suppose to be here.”

“I can leave,” Stiles said, standing up and moving toward Derek, his voice steady but he knew they could hear how his heart was pounding in his chest.

“No!” Derek almost yelled, stepping into Stiles path, “I just meant, you were suppose to be safe.”

“I feel a hell of a lot safer here than I did in Beacon Hills the last year,” Stile said, half hoping Derek picked up on what that meant, half hoping he didn’t, because their relationship had never been one of openly admitting they needed the other, it had always been one of saving each other without verbal thanks, it had been animosity that eventually turned into something else.

“This place is Beacon Hills,” Isaac said unhelpfully.

“Is everyone here?” Stiles asked, ignoring Isaac.

“Kira, Jackson, Boyd, Erica, Cora, Isaac, Danny, Allison, myself, even Peter,” Derek said with a little smile, like he still wasn’t used to having everyone back, “And now you.”

“And now me,” Stiles said, giving Derek a little smile, “Any idea how we get back?”

“I don’t think there’s a way back,” Derek admitted, taking a step closer to Stiles, like he knew a panic attack was coming, and he probably did with the way Stiles’ heart was racing, “Hey, hey calm down.”

“You calm down,” Stiles managed to choke out, and then Derek’s hand was over his heart and his was being placed over Derek’s.

“Come on, breathe with me,” Derek said, voice softer than Stiles had ever heard it. He matched his breathes with Derek’s comforted by the steady beat of Derek’s heart under his hand and slowly, very slowly his heart rate and breathing went back to normal.

“My dad, Scott,” Stiles managed to say, “Lydia, Melissa, Malia, Argent.”

“They’re safe.”

“They’re in Beacon Hills, no one there is safe,” Stiles said, then realized that he was on the floor of the loft, Derek’s arms around him, holding him as he shook slightly.

“That’s true,” Isaac piped up again, and Derek turned and growled at him. Isaac just smirked and said, “I’m gonna go let the rest of the pack know Stiles is here.”

When Isaac left Stiles extracted himself from Derek and asked, “How long have you been here?”

“About a year,” Derek said, lowering himself onto the couch and nodding his head toward the empty space, a clear invitation for Stiles to sit down, “The Hunt got me right after I split with Braeden; Cora, Allison, Boyd, and Erica were already here. I think Danny was too but we didn’t find him until Jackson showed up.”

“Wow,” Stiles said, running a hand through his hair, “And it’s really still Beacon Hills?”

“Just less dangerous,” Derek said, “We haven’t had a single supernatural incident since I got here. You can crash here for a bit, until you get settled in somewhere else.”

“Oh, thanks,” Stiles said, suddenly aware of how exhausted he was. “I actually might crash now, if that’s okay.”

“Take the bed upstairs, I’ll sleep down here,” Derek offered, and Stiles nodded before walking up the spiral staircase to the bedroom of the loft. He flopped onto the mattress and fell asleep almost instantly and for the first time in a long time he didn’t have a single dream.

——

Time passed in about the same way in the Upside Down, and before Stiles knew it he had been here for over a month, most of his time spent with Derek and the pack. He was still living at the loft, though he had offered to find his own place Derek didn’t seem to mind that he was still here, “Roanoke disappeared entirely, do you think that’ll happen to Beacon Hills?”

Kira had asked the question one afternoon while she, Stiles, and Derek hung out in the loft, one of Kira’s feet tapped like she couldn’t sit still, that was something she and Stiles had in common.

“It might,” Stiles said, looking up from the book he was reading, it didn’t have any real information in it anyway. “More and more people from Beacon Hills keep showing up here, so it really might.”

“We should do something for Christmas,” Kira said suddenly, her eyes bright.

“Do you even celebrate Christmas,” Stiles asked, leaning back on the couch and looking at her.

“I like the decorations,” Kira said with a small smile, “Plus, it would be nice to get the whole pack together to celebrate. You and Derek can host!”

“Me and Derek?”

“Yeah, you guys pretty much have the pack house.”

“I’m only crashing here for a little,” Stiles said, eyes darting to Derek who snorted, “Oh come on, it’s only been a few weeks.”

“It’s been over a month,” Derek said, but he was smiling and his eyes were bright. “You know I like having you here, just admit that you live here."  
  
“Fine, I live here,” Stiles said with a huff, “And we can host a pack Christmas, we could use all the family we can get right now.”

Derek rested his hand on Stiles’ neck and squeezed, he knew how much trouble Stiles was having adjusting to live without his Dad. He had been searching for a way back for everyone, but all he had found was a lot of nothing.

“Great!” Kira said, her smile bright and enthusiastic. She jumped off the couch and walked toward the door, “I’ll start planning now since we all know you guys won’t do it.”

“I can’t believe it’s almost Christmas,” Stiles said, resting back against the couch, “It’s my first one without my dad.”

“At least we have each other,” Derek said, and Stiles knew him well enough to know that though the words sounded sarcastic and a little cynical, he meant them.

“Yeah, we do,” Stiles said, leaning against Derek in a now familiar motion. The contact helped calm him and he thought that it might help Derek too, but they hadn’t really talked about what they meant to each other just yet.

———

“Merry Christmas!” Kira said with a smile as she walked into the loft on Christmas Eve, her arms were full of presents and behind her Jackson and Danny also had gifts, Isaac and Boyd had food, and Erica had two bottles of whiskey and a wicked smile. Ten minutes later Allison showed up with two trays of cookies and a smile to match Kira’s, Cora on her heels looking a little flushed.

And it was a Merry Christmas. Stiles was shocked by how happy he was, by how light he felt, and it wasn’t just the whiskey. These people, they were the closest thing he had to family and it was starting to feel like home here in the Upside Down.

“Hey,” Derek said quietly while everyone threw wrapping paper at each other, he was close to Stiles, the kind of close that came with familiarity and comfort. “How you holding up?”

“Better than expected,” Stiles said honestly, letting himself rest against Derek, “This feels a lot like home now.”

“You’ve always felt like home,” Derek admitted quietly, putting his arms tentatively around Stiles’ waist and Stiles fell into his chest, his head on Derek’s shoulder, “From the beginning, even when I was shoving you against walls and generally being a dick.”

“Aww were you scared of you feelings?”

“And of the fact that there was a rogue alpha, a newly bitten wolf, and a 16 year old little shit who always seemed to be where I needed him to be,” Derek said with a little smile.

Stiles looked at Derek, his eyes soft, “And now, what are you scared of now?”

“That you’re not real,” Derek said, running his nose up Stiles’ neck to his jaw, “That you won’t want me the way I want you.”

“Don’t act like you didn’t know how bad I wanted you since the day I met you,” Stiles said, a shiver going down his spine, “Don’t act like you didn’t know how into you I was.”

“Sure, you wanted me, but that was for my body,” Derek said and then Stiles understood.

“Derek, I don’t just want you for your body, hell you could be 300 pounds and have no hair,” Stiles said, cupping Derek’s face, “It’s all about who you are in here.”

He felt Derek’s heart skip a beat under the hand he had just placed over it, “Yeah?”

“Hell yeah,” Stiles said, and then they were kissing and it was everything Stiles had ever wanted in his life. It was home.

And then suddenly they weren’t kissing anymore and there was cheering behind them, “Get out,” Derek growled, but everyone knew that his growls were all showboating these days.

“You owe me a case of wolfsbane laced beer,” Stiles heard Erica say and he groaned to himself, but then he was laughing.

But the laugh was smothered by Derek’s lips on his and Stiles felt himself melt into Derek. This was what kissing was suppose to be, this was what he and Derek should have been doing since the day they met. Derek Hale was his home.

“Are you crying? Is something wrong?” Derek asked, pulling away and wiping a tear off Stiles’ cheek.

“I think I’m just happy,” Stiles said, “I feel like I’m home.”

“You are,” Derek muttered into Stiles temple, kissing him there, “You always have a home here with me.”

——

Stiles woke up warm on Christmas morning, Derek’s arm slung around his waist and his breath on his neck, “Morning.”

“Morning,” Stiles said rolling over and kissing him on the lips, smiling as he did because he finally could kiss him.

“There’s someone at the door,” Derek said, looking a lot more alert than he had a moment before, “Stiles, I think it’s your dad.”

Suddenly there was a knock at the door and Stiles sat bolt upright, before he jumped out of the bed and tugged on a pair of sweatpants that were on the floor and ran to the door, then pulled it open, his heart racing.

John Stilinski saw on the other side, a worried look on his face until his eyes fell on Stiles, “I’m so sorry I forgot you son.”

“Dad,” Stiles said, putting his arms around his dad’s neck and hugging him tightly, tears falling freely, “I missed you so much.”

Stiles heard Derek move behind them and felt his dad lift his arms from around him, “Come in here kid, you’ve taken care of Stiles more times than I can count, you might as well be family.”

And then there was a body pressed up against Stiles’ back and Derek was hugging both of them, “Stiles takes care of me too.”

“I know he does.”

“Hey guys,” Stiles said, extracting himself from the hug so that he could look at both of them with a big smile on his face, “Merry Christmas.”

John wrapped his arm around Stiles’ neck, “You too kiddo.” Then he looked between Derek and Stiles with a smirk, “Did you two finally get together?”

“Shut up,” Stiles muttered.

“I’m just mad that Melissa isn’t here, she’d owe me 20$.”

Stiles glared at his father while Derek laughed and wrapped an arm around Stiles’ waist. It wasn’t the perfect Christmas, it was better than that. Stiles and his dad laughed and caught up while Derek fried bacon and eggs for Christmas breakfast. This upside down version of Beacon Hills wasn’t that bad at all.

**Author's Note:**

> [](sterekseason.tumblr.com>tumblr</a>)


End file.
